Hah - I came to the same conclusion and did this:

use MIME::Entity;

my $email = 'you@yours.com';
my $our_email = 'me@mine.com';
my $us = 'Just another Perl Hacker'; 
            
# create the alternative part with header
my $alt = build MIME::Entity 
    Type => 'multipart/alternative';

# now, make alternative attachment/s:
attach $alt 
    Path => "c:/text.txt", 
    Type => 'text/HTML',
    Encoding => '7bit';
attach $alt 
    Path => "c:/html.htm", 
    Type => 'text/HTML',
    Encoding => '7bit';

# stringify our alternative part object 
$alt = $alt->as_string;

# create the top-level, and set up the mail headers:
my $top = build MIME::Entity 
   Type    => 'multipart/mixed',
   From    => $our_email,
   To      => $email,
   Subject => "Information from $us";

# next, add the alternate bodies of the message: 
attach $top 
   Data => $alt;

# now, make an attachment:
attach $top 
    Path => "c:/word.doc", 
    Type => 'application/octet-stream',
    Encoding => 'base64';  


# have a look at the result
print $top->as_string;
[download]

cheers

tachyon

s&&rsenoyhcatreve&&&s&n.+t&"$'$`$\"$\&"&ee&&y&srve&&d&&print